How to Configure Checklists in SAP Solution Manager 7.1 — Part 1

In this Customizing activity, you define checklists and checklist profiles.A checklist is a list of steps to be performed by one or more users to fulfill a task; while a checklist profile consists of a number of checklist-related settings, including the checklists themselves. In the context for change request management in SAP Solution Manager, checklists could include a series of IT related activites that needs to be completed prior to the deployment of a change in Production. This helps administrators and change managers informed about all the routine activities that need to be carried out and all parties involved are informed about their tasks. This functionality is part of SAP CRM 7.0 (EhP1) but has been integrated and available within SAP Solution Manager 7.1 since SP 5.

The checklist also consists of n-steps that you can customize based on the requirements of an organization. The business partners responsible for these tasks can be entered in the fields corresponding to the task along with due date and completion status including a workflow notification to the business partners re: their assigned tasks.

The checklist assignment block in the CRM UI for change request (just an example) is as seen below. It also has a graphical display of process flows.

The business partners responsible to carry out the steps can be assigned automatically via rules, or they can be entered manually. As can be seen in the process flow chart above; there is one step which needs to be executed first, and only then the other four steps will be executable.

The screenshots are from SAP Solution Manager 7.1 SP 08 system. Initial Review shows no major differences in the configuration and set-up of checklists between SAP Solution Manager 7.1 SP08 and SP10 versions.

Technical Information:

The requirement to complete this set-up is that basic checklist settings are completed and that a rule modeller profile is defined in “Define Service Manager” profiles.

A prerequisite to the setup for checklist customization is the activation of the following Enterprise Business Functions: This is now a part of the guided procedure in solman_setup. In SAP Solution Manager 7.1 SP 10 you will find the related activities for switching the business functions in the the “activate switches” step of the guided procedure for change request management. Here is a snapshot —

To Assign Checklist, select “Assign Checklists” in the navigation panel on the left-side and click on “New Entries”.

Enter the “Checklist ID” (i.e. ZMCRCL01) and identify the “Lock Option” (either “Lock Checklist After Initial Save” or “Lock Checklist After First Step is Executed”). Option can be decided based on the requirements in your organization.

Step 8:

Include this checklist in the display section of the change request in the CRM_UI

Step 9:

Workflow Notifications can be set-up. Follow the IMG documentation for this set-up.

An additional status in the Normal and Urgent change workflow can be created to verify checklist completion along with an automated email notification. These are additional steps pending customer requirements. The customization steps will be covered in Part 2 of the blog which will be coming out shortly.

A very nice document but just for a small edition, you didn’t mention about the item category determination which is very important, without it, the checklist steps won’t fill up and no determination would take place.